Three Pipedreams Project kayakers from Ecomarine Ocean Kayak Centre in Vancouver will paddle an amazing 900 km this fall, leaving September 1 and paddling from Kitimat to Vancouver. They will cross the length of the B.C. coast, tracing the portion of the tanker route that is most at-risk to an oil spill, connecting and engaging citizens to learn about the risks posed by the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Project.

“Recent spills on the Gulf Coast, Kalamazoo, Michigan and Dalian, China, demonstrate the urgent need to evaluate our oil industry and the planning of the pipeline,” said Curtis White, one of the Pipedreams Project kayakers.

The aim of the project is to create a dialogue about the risks of developing the oil industry on our coast, and how citizens are and can be involved in the process. Enbridge’s proposed pipeline would open the door for an oil industry that endangers special places like the Great Bear Rainforest.

"We need to review not only the proposed pipeline, but the weakening state of our national environmental policy,” said Pipedreams team member Ryan Vandecasteyen. “What we need is better legislation protecting our environment, like Bill C-502 banning tankers from the North Coast.”

Bill C-9 has gutted federal environmental assessment, setting the stage for projects like the Northern Gateway Pipeline in even more remote, wild and special places like Canada’s Arctic.

The Pipedreams Project team will leave from Kitimat on September 1, after the team attends the first of the formal panel review sessions for the pipeline, scheduled in Kitimat on August 31.

“We expect to encounter stormy seas, and long sections of steep, rocky shores with little opportunity to land that require total commitment and careful planning. At the same time, however, we will be paddling through one of the most remote and beautiful regions of the B.C. Coast – an area that deserves to be protected for generations to come,” said Faroe Des Roches, a Pipedreams Project team member.

Track the Pipedreams team’s daily progress along the coast, join the Pipedreams Project team, and Take Action by sending a letter to key members of parliament by visiting www.thepipedreamsproject.org.